Executive Committee Meeting

Boulder Faculty Assembly

Minutes

October 20, 2003

Attending:

Barbara Bintliff, BFA Chair

Stein Sture, Vice Chair

Greg Carey, Secretary

Bill Waite, Academic Affairs Committee

Andy Cowell, BFA Academic Technology Committee Chair

Jerry Peterson, At-Large Board Member

Uriel Nauenberg, former BFA chair

Cathy Comstock, BFA AAP Committee Chair

David Guenther, BFA Administrative Services Committee Chair

Dipankar Chakravarti, Minority Affairs Committee Chair

Rodney Taylor, At-Large Board Member

Mike Preston, BFA Intercollegiate Athletics Cmte Chair

Lori Seward, BFA Committee on Women Chair

Martin Walter, BFA Student Affairs Cmte Chair

Stephanie Martin, UGGS/UCSU Legislative Council

Guest Speakers:

Sanjai Bhagat, College of Business

Media:

Jeff Dodge, Silver and Gold Record

Not Attending:

Mel Branch, BFA Faculty Affairs Committee Chair

Marguerite Moritz, BFA GLB Affairs Committee Chair

Bob Hohlfelder, Budget and Planning Committee Chair

Mark Dubin, BFA Libraries Committee Chair

Tom Mayer, Communications Committee Chair

Clayton Lewis, Faculty Compensation and Benefits Cmte Chair

Bill Kaempfer, Assoc. VC for Budget and Planning

Gail Ramsberger, Arts and Sciences Council Chair

Basim Mahmood, Tri-Exec Representative

A meeting of the Boulder Faculty Assembly Executive Committee was held on Monday, October 20, 2003 in UMC room 425. Chair Barbara Bintliff presided. The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m. and adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

A. Approval of Minutes

MOVED by Stein Sture and seconded by William Waite that the minutes of October 6, 2003 be approved.

B. Chair's Report

Bintliff invited the faculty to participate in “Make A Difference Day” set for Saturday, October 25 at Harlow Platts Park in South Boulder, beginning at 10:00 a.m. until noon. The event is sponsored by USA Weekend magazine in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation, among other organizations. The BFA Executive Committee passed a resolution on Oct 15, 2001 urging all faculty to participate in “Make A Difference Day”; this event is being coordinated with CU’s Staff Council.

Faculty Council is working on an administrative policy statement dealing with administrative leave for officers, exempt professionals, and faculty on 12-month appointments. This translates to faculty with administrative appointments, librarians, research faculty and exempt professionals and university officers. The Chair noted that the BFA does not currently have a Faculty Benefits and Compensation Committee to review this policy and provide comments so that it could propose amendments in a substantive way; Secretary Carey agreed to pursue this matter. Preston commented that Faculty Council’s Personnel Committee has reviewed the policy and has tentatively agreed to support the policy as written. Bintliff pointed out that this is a new version of the policy brought to the September 15 Executive Committee meeting. The Health Sciences Center has pointed out that educational leave, e.g., attending a conference, would probably not be permitted under this revised policy.

Several weeks ago Bintliff and Shernick received a memorandum from the chancellor stating that the BFA budget would be cut by a total of $2400 or 4%. In order to cope with these cuts and to comply with cost-saving measures adopted by other campus committees, the Chair suggested the BFA stop providing photocopies of every document on the agenda for distribution at meetings, pointing out that the expense of making copies every year is almost exactly the amount cut from the budget. Links to the appropriate documents will be emailed to all committee members before each meeting. Comstock requested documents be sent as attachments with several hardcopies made available at the meetings, and the Chair agreed that several copies of all attachments would be available. Martin pointed out that this change may save the BFA money, but it will result in cost shifting. The Chair called for questions and a motion was heard to have all documents (agendas and handouts) electronically supplied as attachments for the Executive Committee meetings. Sture suggested that the committee consider performing other tasks electronically, such as review committee minutes online and submission of comments electronically to save additional time and paper expense. Sture and Carey are looking over the By Laws with a view to modernizing certain sections with the possibility of using email for routine housekeeping or emergency matters. A vote was taken and the motion passed favorably. Nauenberg pointed out that the campus could save additional funds by using the web directory and web-based registration.

The Chair asked the group whether meeting every week was effective and suggested that the committee could reduce its time commitment and meet every other week. Nauenberg recommended that the semester schedule of weekly meetings be retained in the event emergency sessions need to be called; Bintliff stated that schedules will be sent out regularly to keep committee members informed and that faculty will have to be willing to drop everything in the event of an emergency meeting. A motion was heard and seconded that, to the extent possible, meetings be scheduled for every other week, at the chair’s discretion, with the proviso that faculty save the time for emergency meetings and that advance notice of cancellations will be provided. A vote was taken and the motion carried.

C. Special Report

Chair Bintliff introduced Sanjai Bhagat, Professor at the Business School and chair of the University Benefits Advisory Board, or UBAB. Bhagat distributed a document referring to the percentage of change in CU employee costs for medical insurance plans proposed for 2003-2004 which reflected an increase of 14% on the high end all the way to a decrease of roughly 7% on the low end, which could mean faculty and staff pay less for insurance this year compared to last. He sought the advice and opinions of faculty regarding employee cost of insurance at CU and compared it to the packages offered by similar institutions in the country. He said there is a movement among administrators and faculty to get CU to pay a larger share of the cost of benefits than they do currently, and that without any intervention, in the next 5 to 7 years some employees could be paying close to $2,000 per month out of pocket for benefits based on current trends. Bhagat expressed concern for staff and exempt professionals on campus who could not possibly afford these increases and the need to bring faculty and staff from all four campuses together to explain what is likely to happen if nothing is done. Some universities have a pool of funds available for health care costs, while others substitute salary increase monies to pay for these increases. Nauenberg believed that faculty rejected the idea of using salary increase money to fund benefits and cited the Question of the Month as reference. It was suggested that another Question of the Month be prepared on this issue and Bintliff agreed that the committee could work with Bhagat to make certain that what is asked in this next QOTM has enough information to put the questions into a more complete context. Peterson asked what group on campus is feeling the fiscal pinch the worst, and Bhagat stated that young faculty lower on the pay scale and classified staff have been hit the hardest. Comstock observed that the current high rates are due to a structural problem and pointed out that the single payer system in Canada has been more successful in keeping down health care costs and suggested that real change would have to be structural. Carey asked if CU had plans to join together with other groups in order to gain leverage and contain costs in the benefits marketplace and Bhagat told him that there are state statutes preventing this. Bintliff asked about other institutions of higher ed such as UNC and CSU and whether or not CU could join forces with them to create leverage to lower the cost of health care. Bhagat offered to look into these questions. Stein suggested that perhaps once CU gains enterprise status it might be open to negotiating lower health care costs. Bhagat stated that if one is employed by the State of Colorado, enterprise or not, health care has to come under the umbrella of the Insurance Commissioner. Chakravarti asked how the levels of insurance coverage compare with those of other state universities—are we paying more or less than at other institutions?—and what is the level of contribution at CU compared to that at other universities. Bhagat said that, as a general rule, our institutional contribution is on the lower side. Carey asked if UBAB was connected to societies or organizations that might be willing to try to solve the problem of health care costs on the national political level. There was discussion on the kinds of coverage available to faculty when living temporarily out of state. Emergency care is available to faculty when out of state, but to do follow-up care requires returning to Colorado, which is the problem for faculty on sabbatical. Emergency care when traveling abroad is also available, but subsequent care involves coming back to Colorado or requires a change in plan. Coverage can be changed in advance of a sabbatical abroad as it constitutes a qualifying event, but when faculty return to the U.S. they must wait to change plans until the enrollment period begins again. Walter asked if there was a national organization we could join or create to begin work on these issues; Bintliff asked if there was a consortium of universities across the country that we could contract with, and Bhagat offered to research these questions.

Bintliff thanked Professor Bhagat for his presentation and offered to disseminate answers to questions raised during the meeting on his behalf.

C. Committee Reports

Cathy Comstock stated that Administrator Appraisal Program was reviewing only one administrator this year, Provost Phil DiStefano, with the goal being a 60% response rate on the random sample as well as the targeted knowledge sample. Bintliff asked if the BFA also ran surveys on deans under review, and Comstock replied affirmatively. As Dean of the Business School Steven Manaster is under review for reappointment this year a second round of surveys will go out to include him in this year’s program. The results of the administrative appraisal are released if a threshold of 60% is reached.

E. Next Meeting

The next regular meeting of the Boulder Faculty Assembly Executive Committee will be Monday, November 3, 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in UMC room 425 as the October 27 meeting has been cancelled. Ric Porreca will be the guest at that meeting.

The Chair thanked everyone for attending and the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Martha Shernick, BFA Administrator

BFA Executive Committee Minutes Archive | BFA